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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Cooking Wizardry

An artist’s experiment with different shades of colors holds his audience captive with the sheer beauty of the amalgamation displayed on the canvas. When we speak of creativity, all we think about is a painting, a structure or a monument, writing or engineering. Not many would consider cooking as a form of creativity.

A small kitchen equipped with the basic and few or more sophisticated or traditional gadgets paves an immense scope for curating a vast variety of mouth-watering dishes. Be it heating or cooling, drying or fermentation, there is no dearth of dishes, be it pickle or curd, possibilities are ample for products to emerge in a kitchen. From cutting vegetables to braising meat, from combining different flavors to allowing air for bread making, kitchen gives birth to variety of flavors and aroma that permeate and reach every nostril. Even more enchanting is the look on the face of an honest cook who views the end product that he has made after minutes, or even hours of perseverance.

It is no surprise therefore that food industry has gained immense importance. People like to try different varieties of food. The same main ingredient in one dish can be a secondary ingredient in another. Variety has no limit.

I admire the way people spend their time combining ingredients.I have never been a fan of cooking, neither am I now. But that doesn’t stop me from watching the ample cookery shows on the television and watching people cook. The fervor and sheer interest with which they execute each and every process is applauding. Be it as simple as boiling an egg or making a stuffed turkey, the cook uses his every sense to make it perfect. In this era of processed food and instant cooking, the traditional cooking has not been let down. People would any day prefer to have a freshly cooked meal.

Cooking has also been used as a therapy for stress. Some people find cooking therapeutic since activities involved help in removing stress. The aroma, the look, the taste that they manage to create gives them a sense of satisfaction. The complement that they get from people is an icing on the cake. The entire process involved in cooking is much longer than the time required to gobble up the dish.

Even though cooking has all these advantages, it doesn’t give me the satisfaction as writing gives. As it is said often, to each his own. But cooking is a wizardry that will always keep enchanting me and the sheer pleasure of watching some dish come slowly to life is a treat in itself.